Dinghy Storage Options for the 36ET

[AK_Albin36]

Saw this question on the VA broker post, but figured it was worthy of its own thread. So... where do you store your dinghy?

I have a 10' Zodiac Zoom, inflatable bottom, wood deck, with flat-ended tubes. I first lift the transom of the dinghy up onto the swim step, then haul it to a standing position using the bow line. This leaves enough room to still use the step, and allows quick and easy launch by simply lowering the bow back down to the water. Picture attached.

Other methods?

[joreyn]

You've seen some of this before, but I like the idea of the thread so here goes.

Most of the time my 10' Aquapro sits up on two custom brackets on the hardtop. Lift it up and down with a Roskelly-Olson deck crane.

Blue Moon underway.JPG

To use the crane, it is raised up at a 35 degree angle and attached to a lifting harness. I deploy the tender over the stern. The crane's handheld control has enough cord for me to finish the launch from the swim step. Here is a shot of the crane after I launched the tender to take this scenic shot in Princess Louisa.

Blue Moon at Princess Louisa.JPG

On longer cruises, I use a towing harness and tow the tender. It tows very well on the second stern wave. Even in fairly rough water.

Here is the crane stowed.

Blue%20Moon%20Port%20side.jpg

[Engineer6]

Here is a slightly different take on the topside arrangement. A wooden cradle was built by previous owner and bolted through the stern cover. He had a crane davit that was braced down through the main deck to the longitudinal joist. Must have thought to lift a whale?
In SC don't need all the cover but boat was outfitted for Cape Cod weather.

[marko]

Well, I'm halfway there. I added a used sailboat boom to the original mast and two stays forward and down to the sides of the aft flybridge seat. Two problems: I need to double up the pulleys if I'm going to proceed with this arrangement. The other is that the roof flexes under load 100lb + on the boom. The rig works well however for the dinghy OB, swinging easily over the dock, to the rail mount and out onto the dinghy. I'm checking out Weaver snap davits for the swim platform right now. However, I do like the cranes. Boom rigging works well also on the 4th of July!

[joreyn]

I've hear of the problem with the hardtop flexing. Interestingly, mine does not do that. After thinking about it, I believe that is due to 2 factors.

First, the tender cradle consists of two stainless 2" brackets through bolted on the hard top. My guess is that they stiffen the top. There is also a center line hand rail of 1" stainless overhead in the cockpit which most likely helps stiffen.

The second possibility is the crane. It is mounted to a heavy tube that goes down to a stringer in the engine room. That is in effect a third suppot post for the hard top.

My tender weighs about 175 lbs with the outbaord attached. Never noticed any flex.

[marko]

The roof seems fine walking around on it, but the point load of the mast base with the boom load creates flex. I can pull myself on the boom while on the swim platform and watch the flex. Also, FYI: the roof cavity takes on water, discovered inside port ceiling light, so I drilled drain holes in the ceiling,outboard aft corners. I need to disassemble the sliding hatch rails, clean and re-seat them. I've already done this for the aft pillar caps on top.

[AK_Albin36]

I recently installed a vertical 1" SS rail (pole) on the aft/centerline edge of the roof, down to the transom. Took all the flex out.

[marko]

I think I'll do a temporary vertical brace and test load the boom as per above. If it works, then I've got some avenues to check out for used SS railings. Thanks.

[902dlw]

Saw this question on the VA broker post, but figured it was worthy of its own thread. So... where do you store your dinghy?

I have a 10' Zodiac Zoom, inflatable bottom, wood deck, with flat-ended tubes. I first lift the transom of the dinghy up onto the swim step, then haul it to a standing position using the bow line. This leaves enough room to still use the step, and allows quick and easy launch by simply lowering the bow back down to the water. Picture attached.

Other methods?

It looks like you had to remove the swim platform rails, true?

[marko]

I've since switched to a Weaver Snap Davit approach for the transom, but use the boom (per above) for the outboard. Due to the integral swim platform, I'll need offset davit heads, made to order. So more dollars, but if easy to use... Still a work in progress.

[arcticspud]

Here are some photos of our setup.

[marko]

Nice crane. It looks like it reinforces the roof too. I'm still working on a Weaver snap davit application for now. Need to resolve the swim platform ht to water level, which changes as fuel is used. Also, I get a high wake off the swim platform and may not be able to pivot dinghy up high enough, and the structure of aft end of the platform requires an extension to set clips back some. Weaver has all sorts of parts, extensions, etc but may be getting too messy.

[AK_Albin36]

902dlw: This 2004 boat came without the swim platform railing. I was missing not having them at first, but now appreciate the access and dinghy flexibility this setup allows. Interestingly, it has rails up on top of the cockpit roof, which makes kayak storage easier, but dinghy storage up there more difficult.

[RobS]

902dlw: This 2004 boat came without the swim platform railing. I was missing not having them at first, but now appreciate the access and dinghy flexibility this setup allows. Interestingly, it has rails up on top of the cockpit roof, which makes kayak storage easier, but dinghy storage up there more difficult.

Makes perfect sense to me, I'd rather fall off the swim platform than the roof !